St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-09-19
JOHN WILKES BOOTH.
A Talk With the Man That Cap
tured Him.


A Talk With the Man That Cap
tured Him.
Lippincott's Magazine.
Capt. Ed Doherty, the man who COM
manded the expedition which captured
John Wilkes Booth, has lately received
a government appointment as Indian
post trader in Dakota. He is tall,
straight, brOad-shOuldered man of forty
six years. He has a dark complexion
inclined to be ford, a broad. open face,
high forehead, and hair as black as a
piece of camel coal. He talks well, and
chats very entertainingly about his eX-
perienceS at the time of the assaSsina-
ton. He told me the story of Booths
capture not long ago.
Said he; ''Twenty-One years ago! 1t
does not seem as many days. The
scenes of that time are photographed on
my memory. / was sitting i'm Lafayette
park talking with brother officer. 1t
was my day off, and [ was rejoicing my
soul in the bright rays of the spring
sun. The trees had begun to leave.
The first flowers were out in the park,
and the grass was of the greenest. My
friend and myself were talking to a
couple of ladies', when an orderly came
report to Col. Baker immediately
When l reached Col. Bakers head
quarters l was directed to take twenty
five men and proceed on the track of
Booth to Fredericksburg. A very short
time after this had my detail at the
Sixth street wharf at Washington.
There l found steam boat, the
John S. Idle, ready to carry me to
Belle PLANE. Here we left the boat,
and, landing our horses, we struck
across to the Rappahannock at Port
Conway. At the house by the port we
questioned the people, and finally got
them to admit that Lie n.en we were in
search of had pass ID onward. They
had been met there b.. tAsee of Moseby's
men, cambridge, Ruggles and Jet, and
and Bowling Green. The keeper
of the house told us that he
was accustomed to guide people to
Bowling Green, but that Jett was in love
with the daughter of a tavern keeper
there, and he had offered to guide them.
as he was going that way. Herold was
a friend of Jett, and he told the men
that Booth had killed the president and
wanted to get on south. In a short
time
BOOTH CAME UP ON HIS cRUTCH.
1t seems that he had not been with
HerOld at this time, and he acknowl-
edged to these men of Moseby that he
was the presidents assassin. The party
then went on toward Bowling Green.
Between Port Conway and Bowling
Green lies the Garrett farm. Its build
ings were not far from the road, con-
sisting of an old frame house with
barn and eut-buildings. When the
party reached this house Booth stopped
here and was allowed to remain over
night, while Herold continued on to
Bowling Green with the rest of the
party. We left Port Conway and
rode on to Bowling Green. AS
we did so we passed the Gar
rett house, and learned afterward that
Booth saw us as we passed. He was
looking out of the window as we came
up, and he snatched his carbine and
yelled to Garrett to bring him his piS-
tolls. We passed on, however, without
knowing this, and reached Bowling
Green. found here that Herold had
left, but that Jet was sleeping in the
tavern. l went up to Jett's room and
told him that knew all about his do
ings during the past few days; that |
was going to catechise him, and if |
found him lying we would take him out
and hang him. He was badly fright
ened, confessed that he had been with
Booth. and consented to guide us back
to CARROTS barn, where Booth had
stopped. We then started back for
CARROTS, and reached there in the
early morning. We surrounded the
place, and l went up to the door and
Knocked loudly upon it. In a mo
ment old man Garrett appeared in
very light attire, carrying can
"a fol hot ha i ha1 10
scribed had been there, but that after
the cavalry had passed he had taken his
eruteh and hobbled off to the woods. In
the meantime men had been hunting
about the place, and one of them called
out to me that he had man in his corn
crib. went to the crib and found it
was CARROTS son, who said he was there
to watch the men in the barn, fearing
that they might steal the horses.
/ thus found that Booth and
HerOld was in the barn. Herold had re-
turned from Bowling Green to CARROTS.
We surrounded the barn, and Boston
Corbett was stationed at place where
there was hole in the boards about two
feet square. As soon as we surrounded
the barn we heard men moving about
in the hay.
Il told Booth that / knew it was he,
and we carried OH a short conversation
before he was shot. He first asked:
'''Who are you? You may be my
friends
son my answering he replied; 4 am
cripple and alone.
GIVE ME- A CHANCE FOR MY LIFE.
Draw your men up at fifty PAGES and /
will come out and fight YOU"
81 replied that did not come there
to fight. l said: Il came here to cap
ture you. l have fifty men, and l pro-
pose to do it,
O'About this time he said: There is
man here who wants to surrender awful
bad,' and with that the boy Herold came
out, As Herold left, Booth made
movement as though to raise his carbine
and Boston Corbett fired. The ball
struck Booth just behind his ear, in
about the same place where he struck
the president. The bullet lodged in the
vertebre or his neck and this part of
his anatomy was afterward cut
out, and the bone, with the ball
in it, was kept in the medical museum
at Washington. just before Corbett
fired, the straw at the back of the barn
was lit by detective, and as the blaze
leaped upward / rushed in seized Booth,
throwing my arms around his waist,
under his uplifted arms. and dragging
him out of the burning barn. We car